Wednesday, August 29, 2012

I was going through my reader this morning, and I came across this post on Nathan Bransford's blog about a service where writers can pay someone to give good reviews about their work. And, it's expensive, but obviously people are doing it (the guy was getting 28,000 a month!).

Now I'm sure you've all heard about this by now, since it's been pretty loud this week.

Here are my personal thoughts, which I left in comment form on Nathan's post:

Generating attention is one thing. Getting your book out to as many people as possible to help spread the word about it is fine, in my opinion. Sharing good reviews in blurbs is also okay. Showing how other people liked it is fine - but I feel it must be genuine. I do read reviews. I'm a watcher of them. I like to research things before I do them so I'm prepared. I like reading reviews because they are what I thought were honest opinions of other people. While I've never passed on a book because of a less-than-enthusiastic review, I feel there's a sort of covenant there that reviews should be the honest feelings of a review. As a person who has reviewed, I'm appalled that people would lie, as I wouldn't. On the other hand, as a writer, I'm a little disgusted that people would pay for this service. Getting the word out is one thing. Paying for false praise is a little sad. I understand the temptation of wanting to have people say good things about your work. We work on hard on our stories, and it hurts when people don't enjoy them as much as we do. And it hurts when people don't know about them because there isn't a lot of news out there about it. However, I think a person's art should stand on it's own. If a story isn't good enough to deserve 50 stellar reviews on its own, then go back to the drawing board and write something new and better. Having fictions about your fiction is kind of tacky. If it's good enough, just getting the word out that it exists should be enough.

So, I'm curious, though. Do you guys agree with me? What are your thoughts on the whole issue? Please let me know!

Monday, August 27, 2012

So, I realize that right after I told you all I was going to be blogging more often, I didn't blog again that week.

Well, ironic. And that's life.

But I also promised you I was going to have big news. And here it is!

I'm now living in Phoenix!

This may not be exciting for some people. But I'm just a small-town Montana girl. This is a huge city with endless possibilities. And I'm planning on making the most of them.

I ended up here because my job in Great Falls, Montana was transfered. (Well, technically it wasn't transfered. I was transfered because I applied for the job. If not, my job may have disappeared. Not really. They love me there. And I will probably head back eventually.)

So, now I'm working in downtown Phoenix, living in a huge apartment complex with a POOL and AIR CONDITIONING (Only places I can't afford in Montana have central air) and so much more. I may even get a pet while I'm out here.

Anywho. I'm going to get back to work. No, not work work. Writing. That's right! Me and S.M. Robertson are hanging out on Google+ doing word sprints and such. Want to join in? Please do. Contact info is above (in contact info, no less!).

Wednesday, August 22, 2012

Yeah, so . . . May. It's been since May. You know, since I've written a blog post.

Sorry for the long absence. I'm going to be picking this up again and blogging more regularly. I may have said that before, but I promise the distractions in my life are much less than before. So, it's actually likely that I'll bee keeping that promise.

Write every day, at least 200 words. While I'm really hoping to get more than that, I really needed to set the bar low for myself on this one. Being that in addition to not blogging, I haven't been writing, I decided to keep things simple.

Write a blog post every Monday, Wednesday and Friday. See? See how motivated I am to keep up with my blogging? It's one of the goals. And there you have it. A promise.

Make one vlog. This, I'm hoping, shouldn't be too hard. Just one little video. I'm going to try to work on getting them to be a little shorter. I hate having to cut down everything to make it a managible length.

Comment on at least one blog post a day. I knew you all were wondering what my little goals were going to do for you (besides the obvious of having tons new things from me to read, of course). Well, here you all go! In fact, I want to make sure I'm getting to my readers! Let me know you're listening in the comments. Make sure I can find my way easily to your blog, unless your confident I can find it easily on my own (blogs I already read are a good bet). I'm not going to spend a lot of time looking, unfortunately. But, I promise to read and comment on the blogs of those who read and comment on mine. I may even make a list of them later. Who knows!

So there you have it! My list of goals for the month of September. I'm kind of excited. Do you guys think I can manage them? Go a head and let me know! And, if you want to participate with me, here is the link to sign up again.

About the author

Brenna Braaten is a writer who aspires to be a full-time author. She is a copy editor and designer at a newspaper in Montana and does a lot of traveling on the weekends. She's quite glad you've stopped by.